Daily Telegraph, 06 Sep 2009
I feel some hesitation and scepticism about intervening in defence of press freedom. If such a step is necessary, it means that society, and therefore much of the press, is already diseased.
In "robust" democracies there should be no need to defend press freedom, because nobody would ever think to challenge it.
This brings me to a related point: Italy's problem is not Silvio Berlusconi.
History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community.
But these men haven't always achieved the power they aspired to, because society did not always permit them. If society has permitted him, why should we blame the man rather than the society which has allowed him to have his way?
So it's useless being angry with Berlusconi who is, in a manner of speaking, just getting on with his job. The vast majority of Italians have accepted the conflicts of interest, the encouragement of vigilante groups and the law granting him immunity from prosecution (...)
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